Almost 2,500 operations to prosthetize the hip, knee and shoulder were performed in 2020 as part of the large joints prosthetization program financed with resources from the mandatory health insurance funds. Of all the planned operations, 42 could not be performed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, IPN reports.

The National Health Insurance Company (CNAM) said most of the prosthetization operations were performed on the hip – 1,521, followed by those on the knee – 966 and those on the shoulder – 8.

Over 107 million lei was allocated from the mandatory health insurance funds for cases treated within the large joints prosthetization program. Additionally, almost 2.7 million lei was allotted per case treated within the DRG (diagnosis-related group) system for expensive consumables.

The large joints prosthetization operations were performed at 20 medical institutions contracted by the CNAM: 14 public and six private ones. The average cost of a treated case covered by the mandatory health issuance was about 44,000 lei. The sum includes the price of consumables.

Over 145 million lei were earmarked in 2021 for performing large joints prosthetization operations.